It is important for competitive swimmers or other persons travelling laps on predetermined courses to know the time it takes to complete each lap, as well as other statistics such as the total elapsed time, lap number and temperature. Several devices are known in the art for providing some of these statistics.
Two of the most common devices used by swimmers are (1) water-resistant wrist-watches that are self-activated and (2) large electrical clocks that are above the water and are visible to swimmers. The clocks are more generally used in recreational lap swimming and are usually located at the end of a swimming lane. They require a swimmer to raise the swimmer's head above the water level to view the last split time swam by the swimmer, and the time depicted is an approximate time because the clock does not reset at the end of each lap swam. The wrist-watches are not workable for swimmers except for monitoring total elapsed time, because a swimmer must activate the watch after each lap to monitor split times, thereby interrupting swimming activity. As a result, it is very difficult to conveniently view progress during the swim.
One prior lap timer, disclosed in Dawley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,266 shows a lap timer having a kick pad which is submerged in water, and readouts that are positioned above the water level. Each time a swimmer completes a lap, the swimmer makes active contact with the kick pad and a lap time is computed. This device has the deficiencies of (a) requiring the swimmer to specifically attempt to touch the kick pad during each lap, and (b) requiring the swimmer to lift the swimmer's head out of the water to view the readouts. As a result, it is very difficult for the swimmer to view progress during the swim.
Other electronic devices for use by swimmers and divers are known. For example, Charbonnier, U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,610 discloses an underwater wristwatch containing a timer to indicate the duration of a compression stage to be observed by a diver. However, this patent does not disclose a device for determining elapsed time or the number of laps traversed by a swimmer, nor does it include any digital displays. Siegal, U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,369 and Kasoff, U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,045 also disclose swim lap counters in which the completion of a lap is indicated by a physical switch. The Siegal device, like Dawley, requires that a switch be manually depressed by a swimmer upon completion of each lap. Both of these devices have the shortcoming of requiring the swimmer to consciously locate and depress the switch upon completion of each lap. Kasoff discloses a lap counter that may be worn in the palm of a hand or the bottom of a foot as shown in its FIGS. 4 and 5, and is actuated by the swimmer striking the device against the side of a pool. Although Kasoff does not require that the swimmer contact any particular portion of the pool upon completion of a lap, the swimmer must still consciously contact the side of the pool with sufficient force to actuate the mechanical switch. The Siegal and Kasoff devices include underwater digital displays of lap counts, while the Dawley device includes displays for additional information including split time and elapsed time. However, none of these devices is configured so it may be placed on the bottom of a pool.
Malone, U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,085 discloses a lap timing device that does not detect completion of a lap by a mechanical switch, but rather by an ultrasonic proximity detector positioned at the end of a swimming lane. An ultrasonic wave is normally absorbed by water indicating a swimmer is not positioned in proximity to the timer. However, when the swimmer approaches the counter, ultrasonic waves are reflected back toward the counter to generate a lap completion signal. The device also displays a variety of statistics regarding a training session, including total swim time, average lap time, and minimum and maximum lap times. However, the readouts of the Malone device are not observable by a swimmer looking toward the bottom of a pool, nor are they observable by a swimmer regardless of the direction in the pool lane the swimmer is swimming. Moreover, the proximity detection system does not provide sufficiently accurate results.
Crews, U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,886 discloses a networked racing vehicle timing/location system in which multiple transceivers are positioned at various stages along a race course and also on each race vehicle. Each stationary transceiver transmits a narrow width signal. When the transceiver on a vehicle detects a narrow width signal from a stationary transceiver, the vehicle transceiver transmits a coded signal to the stationary transceiver which identifies the particular vehicle. A remote computer is connected to all stationary transceivers in order to continuously monitor the location of all vehicles. However, in this system, the vehicles must have receivers, and times are not computed by comparing the time it takes for a single transmitted signal to reach two spaced receivers.
Asai, U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,118, discloses a system in which a swimmer may wear a heart monitoring device that transmits signals to generate an electrocardiogram of the swimmer. However, this system does not generate total or split lap times, and multiple swimmers in the same pool using such devices would generate interfering signals.
Finally, none of the above-referenced patents discloses a swimming lap counter/timer that includes a means for storing data regarding swimming sessions and transferring the data to a computer for subsequent analysis.
One object of the invention is to provide a swimmer timer that is waterproof and fully submersible, and which includes an upwardly projecting display so that it may be viewed by a swimmer without the swimmer raising the swimmer's head out of the water.
Another object of the invention is to provide a swimmer timer that does not require a swimmer to make a physical contact with a switch to indicate completion of a lap.
Another object of the invention is to provide a swimmer counter capable of inverting the statistical display so that the display is readable by the swimmer when moving in either direction.
Another object of this invention is to provide an easily transportable swim timing device for use in any swimming facility and to facilitate personal use as an individual training timing device.
Another object of the invention is to provide an timer/counter that can be totally immersed in water and which has a reduced risk of electrical shock.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for processing signals from an athlete and for automatically correcting lap split times based upon analysis of those signals.